FIA scrap 2014 bodywork changes [split]

My point is the significance of the change for teams. The originally proposed changes were massive and you could argue it was another chance to reset the field (like in 2009). But it now looks like the 2013 aero will carry over into 2014, with changes to accommodate and take advantage of the new 2014 gearbox-ERS-engine package.

Good news for all teams or more beneficial to some teams? At least there will be less of a strain on aero development resources next year.

yes. This made Lewis move to Mercedes even more regretfull

EDIT:

Yeah, frigging wide FW causing the majority of first corner incidents, making wheel-to-to wheel racing a rare specialty. And yes, it is just abnormally ugly.

Have a feeling that this here is the point and the date when Mecedes' chances for 2014 are starting to fade considerably. It sounds like Mateschitz has two teams, on the grid, and now they have the FIA in the pocket too. Brace yourselves for another three Vettel WDC's, the next few year's will be a walk in the park for Red Bull. They mihght even reward Mar Webber with an in-between WDC just for the fun of it. 630 mill, and more. Impressive, really.

we thought the same here. I also believe this is very bad particularly for Mercedes. The 2014 changes were where their bigger chances/hopes would be.

How can F1 be so full of "smart" people, but apparently doesn't have a clue when it comes to the entertainment side of things? 600 hp, small 6 cylinder motors, and they can't figure out how to get the aero/mechanical ratio sorted?

Formula One is perhaps the only series in which the cars look like cheap knock-off versions of themselves. It's quite a feat.

If these current rules were locked in when Ferrari were winning titles on the trot, people would be screaming bloody murder. But since it's Red Bull at the top during a now massively long period of rule stability, no one says a thing. Typical.

Not necessarily.As someone has already pointed out, many teams are now very close to the limit of what can be done with the 2012 spec aero rules. Some, like Mercedes, need to catch up a bit, but it's not a large gap they have to close (at least I don't believe the gap is that large). This means that the new engine's power, efficiency, and installation will be the big performance differentiatior, rather than a team interpreting radically different aero rules right. Given that Redbull are the strongest in aerodynamics, they would be the favourites to get new aero right anyway.

They could have found mechanical laptime with a change to low-profile tyres. Trouble is the teams with the most influence are always the ones doing well under the status quo.

As long as it's a development competition, refining details to the Nth degree, the rich teams will always have the advantage. It's the so-called 'expensive' big changes that the midfield need, to give them a chance to out-talent the others.

I was putting high hopes in the change of aero rules to get some nice looking cars back. These rules were set a year ago for 2014 and now they just bin them.

Just in anyway, on F1Racing an article where Pirelli wants even faster wearing tires to get the beginning of the 2012 season back. Yay... one overtake offline and you can change tires. When you have tires with less grip and no hard cliff, you can dare an overtake. In conjunction with the SDS (Sitting Duck System - DRS) I hardly can be bothered to religiously follow the F1 circus anymore.

And to put insult to injury: F1 is moving to payTV (Canal+, Sport1) in the Netherlands, so I can watch races when I follow three different channels:
1. Veronica (Dutch) only the 3 'dinner' GP's in Canada, USA and Brazil. It should be without ad breaks because the Dutch law forbids commercial breaks in live sporting events. The Dutch RTL group is officialy seated in Luxembourg, so they circumvented this law.
2. BBC 10 GP's
3. RTL (German) 7-10 GP's in German with ad breaks.
I'm not shelling out additional cash to watch ugly cars, poor information for viewers (Live timing), nasty stewarding and fake rules 'for the show'.

How can F1 be so full of "smart" people, but apparently doesn't have a clue when it comes to the entertainment side of things? 600 hp, small 6 cylinder motors, and they can't figure out how to get the aero/mechanical ratio sorted?

WTF?

Road. Car. Relevance.

Seems to me that without that, F1 will not get the financial stability it so sorely craves. I'd love 1000 hp V10s or V12s for that matter, but Brawn pointed out in one of the press conferences why that can't be.

According to AMuS, the reason they scrapped the 2014 aero changes is because the cars would have become an average of 5 seconds per lap slower.

I was saying exactly the same thing since those changes (along with the engine regs) were proposed. That the cars will be as slow or slower than current GP2 cars. They will be slow anyway, given the big power loss.

I agree with Ferrari that we need less aero and more mechanical. To compensate for the 5 seconds per lap, they could have considered re-introducing active suspension.

I'm a big fan of the idea to reintroduce proper ground effects with reduction of wing dependent downforce (paired with engines capable of delivering V10 era power levels and relaxing a bit the reliability regulations so the drivers wouldn't need to nurse the cars too much). But I must say that reducing aero while reintroducing active suspensions sounds like a interesting idea. This paired with downforce coming almost solely from ground effects could provide a very good formula. The only problem is that it would probably be too expensive.

In 2014, exhaust blown floors will not be possible or worthwile I think, so some downforce will be lost as a result.

AFAIK the EBD effect was more potent with turbo engines. But it will mostly be down to other regulations.

So, in 2014 the cars will have loads of downforce and LESS power than what we have now.

Ugly, on-rails cars that generate 0 excitement.

I very much would want them to have MORE power. But I think you have this a bit wrong - due to less power they will want to cut drag, so they'll probably race lower DF levels on most tracks. Though not necessary much lower and we can expect the power to downforce ratio to be lower (and much lower when (K)ERS will be inactive).

Yes it is. Removing these silly wide front wings would reduce the occurrence of punctures resulting from marginal racing incidents, e.g Perez and Ricciardo in India.

The wings also just happen to make the cars look like silly toys.

That's a good point, but I wouldn't lay a trip solely on the wide wings. And as far as looks are concerned, I got used to them and IMO they don't look that bad. It would be better if the rear wings were more proportional (like pre-2009).

5 seconds a lap slower? How the **** would a lower nose and different RW/FW make them five seconds a lap slower? Oh yeah, probaly partly due to these weak new engines.

I don't know it that estimate includes the engine power loss, but the noses are high for a reason. High noses allow the splitter and the diffuser to be feed with more air. The floor provides a big portion of car's downforce. That's the reason why lower noses began to be replaces by higher ones in the 90s. Lower noses are better aerodynamics-wise by themselves, but higher noses are better if you look at the whole package.As for the FW, having it closer to the ground improves downforce. Wide wings allow the endplates and winglets to interact with the front wheels in a different way than before (probably more beneficial)Maybe without the aero changes the cars will be "only" three seconds per lap slower?

@up: road car relevance is mostly a myth. Though it may affect funding..

It really hit me this year how slow and lethargic the current generation of cars are especially at the beginning of a race with full tanks. Not to mention really ugly cars that in profile look the same length of a battleship, and engines that all sound identical and nowhere near as good as the v-10 and v-12 days and a serious lack of fire and brimstone.

This is pretty bad! I don't know how the FIA can not at least reintroduce or increase the horsepower...

Seriously the way F1 is going with all these environment bullshit is annoying. The teams and FIA should look at transport costs, emissions than 22 F1 cars and in my opinion F1 cars do not really pass on their technology to road cars. Teams like Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes do not make cars that can be purchased by everyone, they make exotic and supercars so I don't see how these rules help companies like them. Also the noise with the new engines is a concern as well. Partly one of the main reasons I was bought into F1 was due to the noise and the menacing look of the cars. I know the environment is a big concern it should look at other areas of F1 and not the cars itself. Nonetheless, like i said the way F1 is going, especially with more pay-tv it's digging its own grave.

the reason we had all these punctures can be attributed 80% to only a handful of drivers (grosjean/perez/maldonado i.e the GP2 bunch) and in some cases experienced drivers taking silly risks (i.e alonso-raikkonen suzuka)

the reason RW was reduced was to reduce the wake and front wing increased to give more DF to overtake ... or atleast that was the intention. i admit the endplates are causing more punctures than previous years, but it's not only due to the FW alone, brundle seemed to comment that the tire-walls have become thinner compared to early 2000's and causing more punctures with mere touch. i really have to problem if they shorten/widen FW or do without it cause when watching a race, i tend to concentrate on race, not the FW

If i remember correctly they are going to make tire sidewalls stronger for next year so that should help a bit with punctures.

The choice of wording was perhaps a touch misleading, but it refers to ongoing attempts to ensure the new rules meet their original targets - which were to ensure the new cars in 2014 are no more than five seconds slower than they were in 2010 as well as being much more efficient.

But the key point is this - the main visual and philosophical changes that were planned for the cars in 2014 have been retained.

How much lower will the noses be? In 2012, F1 cars had a maximum front nose height of 550mm above the floor of the car. In 2014, that is being reduced to 185mm - a reduction in height of 365mm.Likewise, although the wide front wings will stay, they will be reduced in overall width from 1800mm (the same as the maximum width of the car) to 1650mm.This will almost certainly fundamentally alter the overall aerodynamics of the cars.

This is confusing. So, they are going to lower the noses and narrow the front wings? What plans they did scrap then?

So the big changes are going ahead (apart from barge boards and turning vanes being retained).Confusing wording in the WMSC statement.

What's still going ahead:-Low front bulkhead-No beam wing-Exhausts have to exit further to the back near the car's center line (removing the possibility to blow the edges of the floor)-Reduced width of the front wing-Simplified frontwing endplates

Narrower front wings sound like a very good idea. By moving it in from the edge of the front wheels, that should help stop the constant clashing of wheel and wing that result in endplates flying over the track and risking punctures. Good rule change.

It really hit me this year how slow and lethargic the current generation of cars are especially at the beginning of a race with full tanks. Not to mention really ugly cars that in profile look the same length of a battleship, and engines that all sound identical and nowhere near as good as the v-10 and v-12 days and a serious lack of fire and brimstone.

F1 is kind of...shit.

In that case, you should be happy about the fuel restriction which means they will carry less fuel...

If the racing is better, I'm all for it. They're still the fastest cars in the world so the laptime itself is meaningless.

I'm not sure I'm that comfortable with slower laptimes, if it's a second or two fine no big deal, if it's several seconds they'd better phone Dallara and tell them to make a shittier GP2, and don't forget telling the IRL too.

I do know meeting and improving on the record 2004 times is lunacy, because of cost G-forces safety overtaking etc etc, but there's a sweet spot somewhere.

I'm not sure I'm that comfortable with slower laptimes, if it's a second or two fine no big deal, if it's several seconds they'd better phone Dallara and tell them to make a shittier GP2, and don't forget telling the IRL too.

I do know meeting and improving on the record 2004 times is lunacy, because of cost G-forces safety overtaking etc etc, but there's a sweet spot somewhere.

5 seconds gap (ok, it was a bit wet in the end of the race when cars had low fuel on it)----------------------------------------------SilverstoneF1 2012 fastest race lap 1 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 1:34.661